Law Firm Selects Chrysler Building for First New York Office

Lewis Baach PLLC, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm, has signed a 4-year lease for 3,867 square feet on the 32nd floor of the Chrysler Building at 405 Lexington Avenue, it was announced yesterday. Asking rent was $65 per square foot.

The law firm, which has international offices in London and Buenos Aires, will operate in New York under the name Lewis Baach PLLC Kaufmann Middlemiss. The office is currently operational according to Adam Kaufmann, partner, who will be joined in New York by Arthur Middlemiss. Mr. Kaufman recently left the Manhattan District Attorney’s office to join the firm.

“It’s a landmark building and it just gave us space that is convenient to a lot of business that we are doing,” said Mr. Kaufmann of the Chrysler Building.

Lewis Baach specializes in insurance and reinsurance, international financial disputes and global commercial litigation. Past clients include the American Psychological Association, First Cayman Bank, Halifax Bank of Scotland, John Hancock Financial Services and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The firm plans to hire associates in the New York office to join the two partners currently working there.

“We are quickly becoming busier than we can handle,” Mr. Kaufmann noted. “We are actually in the process of trying to hire associates.”

The Handler Real Estate Organization represented Lewis Baach PLLC in the deal through Scott Galin and Darell Handler. Tishman Speyer, the landlord, was represented in-house by Robert Weller.

“Lewis Baach has been looking to expand into the New York market with an elite Midtown address,” Mr. Galin said in a prepared statement. “The Chrysler Building is unquestionably an upper echelon New York City address, and Tishman Speyer is one of the most sophisticated and well-respected owners.”